KEEN Footwear Partners with the National Wildlife Federation to Get Kids Back Outside

When I was little playing outside was an all day activity. We didn’t play video games or watch television, our entertainment was the endless spectacle of wildlife in our backyard. And I'm not from the rainforest here, this used to be the norm. Today, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, kids are losing touch with the outdoors. See how KEEN Footwear and the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) are working to change that.KEEN Footwear is donating a dollar to NWF'sGreen Hour Program for every pair of their Coronado shoes sold in the United States through the 'Mighty KEENdom' Initiative. The NWF's Green Hour Program is working to ensure that kids get back in touch with their natural world with unstructured time outside, just like the good old days. And that's pretty important considering that outdoor time for kids has decreased by more than 50 percent, while their average time spent inside looking at electronic media has expanded to more than six hours daily.

Outdoor time is crucially important. How can you expect to raise an environmentally responsible child if they know nothing about the natural world? According to Richard Louv's Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, there's strong evidence that such independent play and exploration builds broad mental, physical, and spiritual health. With today's superhighways, thick traffic, shopping malls, and rigid control, kids can't seem to get outside. A study of three generations of 9-year-olds found that by 1990 the radius around the home in which children were allowed to play had shrunk to a ninth of what it had been in 1970. While it's arguably more dangerous than it used to be, we have to find a way to supplement our children's outdoor freedom. Whether we need to play outside with our kids or push our schools to offer more outdoor options, something has to give.

KEEN emphasizes the outdoors in its shoes. The Coronado showcases three different endangered species, the ring-tailed lemur, poison dart frog, and sea turtle. These incredibly cute little shoes also feature recycled aluminum eyelets, a recycled PU and cork footbed (the cushion the bottom of your sock/foot touches), natural canvas, and vulcanization techniques in the construction. Vulcanization is the technique of bonding the shoe outsole in a way that requires no toxic adhesives.